Hollywood and the War: Celebrities versus Politicians?

The historical contribution of some celebrities to contentious politics, including Hollywood stars’ commitment during the civil rights movement, the McCarthy era or the 1960s, is well known.1 In the following pages, Hollywood actors and filmmakers give an account of their participation in the anti-Iraq war mobilization. It is therefore possible to measure the changes that have occurred in comparison with earlier periods of time. Indeed, they depict the particular set of constraints, pragmatic rules and principles that they currently have to deal with in the increasingly professionalized system of cooperation, highly dependent on commercial mechanisms, constitutive of “Hollywood.”